Creating a notebook application with OpenOffice and MySQL

EASY NOTEBOOK

You don’t need to be an expert to hook up OpenOffice Writer with a MySQL database.

OpenOffice.org has some powerful features that let you create custom solutions. For example, the Base application supports different database engines, such as MySQL, and it can connect and manage remote databases. The data from the remote database is then available for other OpenOffice.org applications, so you can, for example, access and manipulate database records directly from within Writer.

You can put OpenOffice’s database access capabilities to some creative uses. For example, you may need a tool to informally store your research notes and text snippets. Several ready-made tools provide this capability; however, they do not offer direct integration with Open-Office Writer. If you work in Writer, you may be looking for a simple web-based notebook application that submits data to a database. The versatile OpenOffice ecosystem lets you create such a tool.

MySQL founder Monty Widenius and the Finnish MySQL services and support company Percona have joined forces to create the Open Database Alliance. The intention of the new consortium is to protect the open source status of essential MySQL components.